Sen. Rodney Ellis: Texas Voter ID law ‘has everything to do with race’

Texas state Sen. Rodney Ellis testified in a federal trial Wednesday that racial attitudes that delayed passage of a state hate crimes bill were behind the passage of a voter ID law the Justice Department claims would disenfranchise minorities.

But a University of Texas pollster, testifying for the state, said there is no evidence that the new law requiring photo identification would have an impact on minority voting.

Ellis, a Houston Democrat, said the voter ID bill was passed by Republicans in the legislature to suppress minority voter turnout.

“They knew what they were doing, and they intended to do,” Ellis told a three-judge federal panel hearing testimony in the trial. “This bill has everything to do with race.”

Ellis, who is black, said the racial attitudes behind the voter ID bill were similar to those that delayed passage of his James Byrd hate crimes bill for over a decade. It passed in 2001.

Byrd, 49, was dragged to death in 1988 behind a pickup truck in Jasper by three white supremacists later convicted of the crime.

Ellis said the new voter ID law requiring a government-issued card with a photo, or a passport or license to carry a concealed weapon, would have a negative impact on black and Hispanic voters less likely to have the documents.

The Justice Department has blocked the law from being implemented, saying the new voting requirements could disenfranchise 1.4 million elderly, minority and student voters.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed suit in U.S. District Court to have the decision overruled.

The trial is expected to conclude this week.

A ruling in the case could come this month, leaving Texas with time to implement the new photo requirements for the November general election if the new regulations meet requirements under the Voting Rights Act.

A University of Texas pollster, Daron Shaw, a witness for the state, said voter ID laws in Georgia and Indiana have had little impact on minority voting.

He disputed a study conducted by Stephen Ansolabehere, a Harvard University professor, cited by the Justice Department, which found that a large number of minorities would lack the documents and access under the new Texas law.

Asked if the Texas law would deny access to the process for minorities, Shaw said “there is no evidence that that will occur whatsoever.”

Shaw, who was hired by GOP strategist Karl Rove to work on George W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000, cited his polls and those conducted by others to conclude that an equal percentage of minority and white voters possess the documents necessary to vote.

“It will not have an impact on turnout,” Shaw said.

State witnesses testified this week that the voter ID law is needed to prevent voter fraud.

The witnesses testified that convicted felons, non-citizens and those listed as deceased have cast ballots in recent Texas elections, including the May 29 primaries.

But testimony also has shown that there have been few indictments for voter impersonation.

Minority groups have joined the Justice Department in the trial, and claim that new regulations under the Texas law would create obstacles for elderly, the working poor and students.

Lydia Camarillo, vice president of the San Antonio-based Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, said the Texas law would create the same problems for minority voters as an Arizona voter law requiring a birth certificate, later found to be illegal by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“It will have the same negative impact,” Camarillo said of the Texas law.